Excerpt: A Field Guide to the Workplace Jungle

This is a brief excerpt from our newest book released in March, 2015 entitled; “A Field Guide to the Workplace Jungle” In this section we are responding to those possible “elephant” behaviours in a team and how to work with them best. You can find the kindle book on Amazon today!

“You may also have heard the expression ‘The elephant in the room’. Sometimes elephant behaviour can hold you back, if not dealt with promptly. Their relentlessness can be very destructive when dealing with someone without the vision to appropriately apply their knowledge. However, although you know you need to deal with it, it is a potentially huge problem.

Tips for dealing with Enabling Elephant behaviourIf you are fortunate to have an elephant on your team, it is wise to bring them close to you and learn what you can from them, while they are there. They will be knowledgeable and willing to share; they will appreciate your respect, and your team will respect you too.

Utilise their behaviour to create strong teams and cross collaborations, but also create a supporting infrastructure to maintain these once the elephant has gone.

Value their loyalty, by giving them your support.

Do not just ‘remove their tusks’ and leave them to die a painful death. In other words value their knowledge as a whole, holistically, do not just suck a piece of it and discard them.

Because elephants are so good at creating strong team bonds, you need to make sure that their purpose aligns with yours. If not, they may become ‘The elephant in the room’ – impossible to ignore, but a potential source of great difficulty to deal with.”

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